From the Test Kitchen: Demystifying Marinades

Posted by Emma Feigenbaum

A few nights ago, I fired up the grill to cook some snapper and whisked together a quick marinade with some olive oil, lemon juice, lemon thyme, salt, and pepper. I realized it's almost second nature for me to drop a piece of fish or meat into a flavorful marinade, like this tangy one that pairs well with lamb. So little work and such delicious results!

I get a lot of questions about why or when to marinate. Does it make a difference in the texture of the meat or fish? How long should I marinate? Is it safe? At room temperature or in the refrigerator? With what?

I've always been skeptical about the magical powers of the marinade. It's sometimes sold as a cure-all to all your barbecue woes. "Tough cut of meat? Just throw it in a marinade!" "Tornado on the way? Marinade!"

Well…maybe not that last one, but you get my point. There's a lot of mystery involved in the whole thing for a lot of people and I'm going to get to the bottom of it.

From the Test Kitchen: Muffin Tips

Posted by Emma Feigenbaum

When the muffin mood strikes, you’ve got to be prepared, and prepared we are at the Everyday Food test kitchen. This morning I got an email from my mother about muffins.

She’s totally confused (sorry, Mom, I had to give you up!). But you know she’s not alone. We get a lot of emails asking about muffins: How many mini muffins will a recipe for regular muffins make? How deep to fill the tins? Why do my berries sink? How do I ensure a tender crumb?

Today I’m baking a batch of Double Blueberry Muffins (one of my personal favorites), always a hit in the kitchen, to illustrate the answers.

From The Test Kitchen: Grilling Indoors

Posted by Emma Feigenbaum

When the temperature rises and the days get longer and longer, I get what some people refer to as culinary tunnel vision. I only want to cook my food one of two ways: grilled or grilled.

But I face a problem that I know many of our Everyday Food readers face: the lack of a a standard charcoal grill. I live in New York (and guess what? Our test kitchen is here, too!), so when I want to grill, I can't go outside to fire up my grill and get cooking. I need to get a bit more creative.

Luckily there are options available for the home cook that can get you flipping burgers in no time.

From the Test Kitchen: Crispy Pork Cutlets

Posted by Emma Feigenbaum

This is one of my favorite clips from "The Martha Stewart Show."

Not because I'm in it, but because for the first time one of the recipes I developed (and Caroline cross-tested) made it to the big screen!

From the Test Kitchen

Posted by Emma Feigenbaum

Even though it's the end of June and we're at the height of fresh herbs and veggies at the green market, I was thinking about one of my favorite things about the Everyday Food test kitchen -- our spice rack.

We always have dried herbs and spices on hand -- lots of them. But when we're working on writing a recipe, we spend a lot of time thinking about what our readers keep in their pantries.

Paprika? Usually. Cumin? Yup. The basics. We try to emphasize those herbs and spices in our recipes and avoid using the esoteric ones too often. Fewer curries, more thyme and rosemary.

And the Winner Is...

Posted by Emma Feigenbaum

We asked: How much cornstarch will the pie need with good summer berries? Looking at these two pies, can you tell which one won our taste test and how much cornstarch was used?

From the Test Kitchen

Posted by Emma Feigenbaum

I went to the farmers' market today, not just to admire the pretty produce and taste the cheeses (as I do on the weekends), but on a test-kitchen mission. I needed to find the ripe, beautiful strawberries that we find at the height of summer to test a pie that we've been working on.

We needed a question answered: How much cornstarch will the pie need with good summer berries?